Many sports fans enjoy following the live action of a sporting event as it takes place. Fans often attend live sporting events to witness the action in person, or follow a game of interest on a live television or radio broadcast. However, in some instances, fans are unable to either attend a sporting event or follow the game on television or radio. Therefore, various utilities have been developed to provide sports fans with alternative means for tracking live sporting events. For example, internet utilities such as Game Cast allow fans to track game data and statistics over the internet as a game progresses. These internet programs and utilities rely on statistics and data submitted from persons attending the game. Typically, a person at the sporting event may enter game data into a personal computer or other computing device with internet capabilities. The computer or computing device may connect to the internet using internet service provided by the sporting venue. Stats and game data input into the computing device may then be uploaded to the internet and streamed directly to internet users.
Unlike professional sports, amateur sporting events are rarely broadcast on television or radio. Sporting events such as youth sports games, school-sponsored sporting events, amateur adult sports leagues, college sports, and other recreation sporting events are often attended only by friends and relatives of the players. Scoring for such games is often kept by pencil and paper and recorded by a league official when the game is complete. Therefore, fans of amateur sports that are unable to attend a scheduled event are often unable to follow live game action. Moreover, other interested parties such as local and national media outlets that do not have sufficient resources to cover amateur sporting events are often unable collect game information for distribution to news websites or newspapers.
Friends and relatives of persons competing in amateur sports would likely welcome live game updates. For example, parents of children playing in a youth baseball game may appreciate live internet or text message updates for games that they are unable to attend. Additionally, fans attending an amateur sporting event may enjoy greater access to details about the sporting event, such as live statistical data and game information. However, unlike professional sports venues, amateur sporting venues typically do not provide internet access to allow computing devices to connect to the internet.
Further, the process of keeping stats in real-time at an athletic event is challenging. The difficulty results from the number of potential outcomes of a play and the speed at which each play happens. Recording comprehensive data for every play can be tedious and difficult. For example in recording a play in basketball, a scorekeeper must capture the name and/or uniform number of the shooter, the location of a shot, the result of the shot, the name and/or uniform number of the rebounder (on a missed shot), etc. In recording a play in baseball and softball the scorekeeper must capture the name or uniform number of the pitcher, the type of pitch (fastball, curveball, etc.) the location of the batted ball, the name or uniform number of the fielder, the success of the fielder (error or no error), and the advancement of the batter to a particular base. The aforementioned examples don't even mention other details like (in basketball) assists, turnovers and fouls or (in baseball and softball), double plays, fielder's choice, and countless other unique rules and events.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a new interface to improve the availability of live amateur sports data.